Note: To send this article to a friend, your Facebook chat must be turned on.

It’s easy to think of astronomy as a “modern” science.

After all its main tool, the telescope, has only been around for about 400 years. While our knowledge of the universe around us increases at an ever increasing rate today, astronomy is actually the oldest science.

There is little recorded information from early man’s thoughts about the universe. They believed that the night sky held great power of their daily lives which lead to the belief in astrology. The early Egyptians may have built the pyramids 5,000 years ago in part as astronomical tools. Stonehenge’s construction start dates back to around the same time and continued for dozens of centuries. Even before then some celestial events, comets, eclipses and exploding stars were recorded in crude drawings often made on cave walls.

1,600 years ago the Babylonians recorded the motions of the planets, sun and moon. Around 500 B.C. the Greeks took that knowledge and applied a scientific method to learn the size of the Earth, to predict future eclipses of the Sun and Moon, and cataloged the stars and constellations.

For our next installment of CASKids, Elizabeth Daniels from Cincinnati State will help you explore how cultures from around the world, including North America used astronomy every day. Without the telescope how did they learn about the moon, planets and stars? Afterwards astronomers will be on hand to answer all your spacey questions, show how telescopes work, and you’ll view the night sky through our big telescopes. (Presentation held clear or cloudy.)

Have a telescope, big or small? Bring it along for expert help exploring the night sky. We invite families, students, teachers and scouts - anyone with a sense of wonder about our solar system, galaxy or the Universe.

More information and resources for teachers can be found at:
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/980215e.html
http://www.starteachastronomy.com/archaeoastronomy.html
http://www.starteachastronomy.com/american.html